confcience feels, what his lips, perhaps, have often repeated: "We do earnestly repent us of thefe our mifdoings; the remembrance of them is grievous unto us, the burden of them is intolerable;" then how will he prize fuch a text: The Lord laid on Chrift the iniquity of us all! How will he long for an interest in the Lamb of God, which taketh away the fin of the world! Then that Jefus who has finished the tranfgreffion, and brought in everlasting righteoufnefs, will be all his falvation, and all his defire. I LETTER VIII. ASPASIO TO THERON. DEAR THERON, HAVE just been reading that exquifitely fine piece of facred hiftory, the life of Jofeph. A hiftory, filled with furprifing incidents, and unexpected revolutions; adorned with the most heroic instances of triumphant virtue, both amidst all the allurements of temptation, and under the preffures of affliction ;-animated with fuch tender and pathetic, fuch melting and alarming touches of natural eloquence, as every reader must feel, and every true critic will admire. When I came to that remarkable injunction, with which the generous viceroy difmiffed his brethren; Ye fball tell my Father of all my glory in Egypt, Gen. xlv. 13. -I paufed-I pondered-I was ftruck. Certainly this was enjoined, not by way of oftentation; but on account of the pleasure, which, he knew, it would yield the good old patriarch. Was it fome kind prompting angel, or the voice of gratitude and devotion, that whifpered in my ear?" Should not the children of men likewise, tell one another of all the glory * which their Redeem * To see the glory of Christ, is the grand bleffing which our Lord folicits and demands for his difciples, in his last solemn in er poffeffes in heaven and on earth? Will not this afford them the fublimest pleasure here, and be a fource of the most refined fatisfaction for ever and ever?" Though I had almoft determined to write no more, till you could make a demand upon the foot of value received, willingly I recede from my intended refolution, and obey this pleafing hint. But who can declare the noble acts of the Lord Jefus Chrift, or fhew forth all his praife?-However, if I may but lifp out his adorable name, and prefent my friend with a glimpse, or a broken view of his divine perfections, even this will be de firable and delightful; far more defirable and delightful, than to behold Rome in its magnificence, St Paul in the pulpit, or King Solomon ou his throne *. Let me take the lark for my pattern; which, as I was lately returning from an evening ramble, attracted my observation: warbling her creator's praife, the mounted in the ferene fky. Still fhe warbled, and ftill fhe mounted, as though fhe meant to carry her tribute of harmony unto the very gates of heaven. Having reached, at laft, her highest elevation, and perceiving herself at an immenfe diftance from the ftarry manfions, fhe dropped on a fudden to the earth; and difcontinued, at once, both to fing, and to foar. Now the morning ap terceffion, John xvii. 24. It is that which will complete the bleffedness of heaven, and fill its inhabitants with joy unfpeakable and glorious. Surely, then, we'fhould endeavour to anticipate, in fome degree, that celestiai bliss, and habituate our fouls to this facred exercife, which will be our business and our reward to endless ages. Should the reader defire affiftance in this important work, I would refer him to a little treatise of Dr Owen's, entitled, " Meditations on the glory of Chrift." 'Tis little in fize, not so in value. Was I to speak of it, in the claffical style, I should call it," aureus, gemmeus, mellitus." But I would rather say, it is richly replenished with that unction from the Holy One, which tends to enlighten the eyes, and chear the heart: which fweetens the enjoyments of life, foftens the horrors of death, and prepares for the fruitions of eternity. * Thefe, if I remember right, are the three things, which St Auguftine declared, would, of all others, most eminently gratify his curiofity. pears, and is awakening the world, our little fongster re-tunes her throat, and re-exerts her wings. As I have endeavoured, very imperfectly endeavoured, to strike out a fhadowy draught of our Lord's complete obedience; I would, though unequal to the task, once more refume my pen, and attempt-nothing like a display, but only a faint fketch of his effential dignity. First let me obferve, that, for fome time past, we have been vifited with the most uncomfortable weather; dewlefs nights, and fultry days. The firmament was more like a glowing furnace, than the region of refreshing rain. The earth lay parched with thirst, and chapped with heat. The meadows were drained of their humidity, and all the flowers hung their fading heads. The streams, which used to flow parallel with the verdant margin, abandoned their banks; and funk, diminished and difcoloured, to the bottom of their oozy channels. Nature, in general, seemed to be refigning the robe of beauty, for the garment of heaviness. Drought was in all our borders; and famine, we feared, was not far behind. Though clouds of duft obfcured the air, tarnished the hedges, and almost smothered the traveller ; yet not one cloud of fleecy white appeared, to variegate the blue expanfe, or give us hopes of a reviving shower *. It reminded me of that awful threatening, denounced by Mofes on a wicked people: The heaven, that is over thy head, fhall be brafs; and the earth, that is under thee, fball be iron, Deut. xxviii. 23. It made me apprehenfive of that terrible ftate, which the prophet fo empha tically describes: The field is wafted, and the land mourneth. The feed is rotten under the clods, and the harvest perifbeth. The garners are laid defolate, and the barns * At fuch a juncture, how pertinent is the queftion, propofed by the Almighty Majesty? Job xxxviii. 37, 38. Who can number, mufter or arrange, the clouds in wisdom? fo as to have them ready at hand on any emergency. And ruho can empty the bottles of heaven, in copious but leafonable effufions upon the earth? when, as in the cafe described above, the duft of the roads is attenuated into powder, and the clods of the valley are glued faft together. LET. 8. are broken down. The new wine is dried up; the oil languifbeth; and all the trees of the field are withered. How do the beafts groan? the herds of cattle are perplexed. Yea, the flocks of Sheep are made defolate. Because the rivers of waters are dried up, and the fire bath devoured the paftures of the wilderness, Joel i. 10, &c. But, blesfed be the divine Providence, our fears are vanished, and a moft joyful change has taken place. The Lord hath fent a gracious rain upon his inheritance, and refrefbed it, when it was weary, Pfal. Ixviii. 9. Yesterday in the afternoon, the wind fhifting to the fouth, roufed the dormant clouds, and brought fome of thofe agreeable strangers on its wings. At first, they came failing in fmall, and thin, and fcattered parties : Anon, the flying fquadrons advanced in larger detachments, more closely wedged, and more deeply laden. Till, at last, the great rendezvous completed, they formed into a body of such depth, and extended their wings with fuch a fweep, as darkened the fun, and overfpread the whole hemifphere. Juft at the clofe of day, the gales which efcorted the Spongy treasures, retired; and configned their charge to the difpofal of a profound calm. Not a breeze shook the moft tremulous leaf. Not a curl ruffled the smooth expanfive lake. All things were ftill, as in attentive expectation. The earth feemed to gafp after the hovering moisture. Nature, with her fuppliant tribes, in expreffive pleading filence, folicited the falling fruitfulness; nor pleaded long, nor folicited in vain. The fhowers, gentle, foft, and balmy, defcend. The veffels of heaven unload their precious freight, and enrich the penurious glebe.. Through all the night, the liquid fweetnefs, incomparably more beneficial than trickling filver, diftils; fhedding herbs, and fruits, and flowers. Now the fun, mild and refulgent, iffues thro' the portals of the east. Pleased, as it were, to have emerged om the late aggravated darkness, he looks abroad, with peculiar gaiety, and the most engaging fplendors. He looks through the difburdened air, and finds a gladdened world, that wants nothing but his all-chear-ing beams, to render its fatisfaction complete. The glory comes !-Hail to thy rifing ray, At his aufpicious approach, the freshened mountains lift their heads, and fmile. The garden opens its aromatic ftores; and breathes, as from a fuming altar, balm to the finell, and incense to the skies. The little hills, crowned with fpringing plenty, clap their hands on every fide. The moiftened plains, and irriguous valleys, laugh and fing: While their waters, lately exhaufted, again are made deep, and their rivers run like oil, Ezek. xxxii. 14. The whole earth, faturated with the bounty of heaven, and flushed with humid life, wears a thousand marks of gratitude and complacency. Wafhed by the copious rain, how bright and vivid is the univerfal verdure? The green carpet below, may almoft vie with the blue canopy above. The foreft, and every tree, burnish their colours, and array themfelves in their fineft apparel: which, as on a day of general feftivity, is delicately decked with gems; gems of unfullied luftre, and of genial moisture. From every pafture, and from all the grove, the voice of pleafure and of melody refounds.. While the officious zephyrs waft the floating harmony, blended with native perfumes; gently waft them to the fenfes, and touch the very foul with tranfport. Could there be a more brilliant appearance, or more exuberant demonftrations of joy, even to celebrate the anniversary of nature's birth? With what admirable propriety has the pfalmift compared yonder orient fun, in all his fparkling grandeur, to a young exulting bridegroom, Pfal. xix. 5. who comes forth, with every heightened ornament from his chamber, to fhew himself *Thefe beautiful lines are borrowed from the Sea-piece, canto 4. A narratory, philofophical, and defcriptive poem, written by my ingenious friend Dr Kirkpatrick. |